FOA Script (Retirement Speech) Student Name and Student Name

Ethan Tremblay:

Fans of the Montreal Canadiens and the rest of the National Hockey League. It is with my utmost regret to announce that the rest of the 2014 season will be my last. I will be leaving with nothing but the greatest respect for you, the fans, the teammates I played with during my time here, and the Canadiens organization which has treated me so well throughout my career. I have nothing but the greatest respect for the city of Montreal, and the support I’ve received from the best fans I’ve ever encountered. Nothing but the greatest respect for the teammates I have competed alongside with for the better part of my seven year career here, teammates I would be proud to call my brothers. Nothing but the greatest respect for the organization which led me through the ups and downs of a hockey season, and never once found it out of their power to accommodate me or my colleagues. I have truly been blessed and I cannot even begin to express the gratitude I have towards all that have taken time out of their lives to guide me through my dream of playing professional hockey.

But recently, I have developed a newfound respect for the game of hockey. Hockey, a game where a split-second means everything, where trust is all you have, and three inches can be the difference between a championship victory, or a heart-crushing defeat. A game where one’s entire life and career, hopes and dreams, goals and ambitions, can be taken in an instant. Many of you will remember Chris Pronger, the 18-year NHL veteran whose career was cut short by sustained concussions during the 2011 season. Or Marc Savard, the Bruins center who sustained a blindside hit from Matt Cooke in 2010, effectively ending his career. These are athletes who have gambled with the game of hockey, and lost.

And sadly, so have I. The collision I sustained last month in the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the collision that put me in a three day coma, was enough to put me in a position where another collision at even half the severity of the first one could end my life. The doctors and physicians say that even if I don’t feel the effects of it now or in the next couple of years, I definitely will as I age. The effects of dementia, depression and amnesia will not only impact my life, but will impact the ones closest to me. It truly is an unsettling reality, but I will remain optimistic. I have decided that I will spend the rest of my health promoting the proper use of headgear in sports to prevent what happened to Pronger, Savard and I from ever happening again. I want to make sure that through the tragedies of the past and present, we will brighten the outlook of the future. It is a goal which seems difficult and unlikely, but then again, so was my goal of one day playing professional hockey.

And so, I want to end with a quote from my grandfather, Lucas Bordeaux. “Un merci sincère est équivalent à un ‘Je t'aime’.” An honest thank you is equivalent to a meaningful “I love you”. So, thank you. Thank you for all the memories I have shared with all of you throughout my career. Thank you for showing me the beauty of Montreal and Quebec. Thank you for believing in me ever since I was drafted, and thank you for the unrelenting support even after our defeats. Without you, I would not be where I am today, and I have the utmost respect for that. Merci beaucoup.

Robert Castillo:

Thank You for a wonderful speech Ethan. Bonjour. Ladies and Gentlemen, respected members. Good morning. My name is Robert Castillo and I am Mr. Tremblay’s attorney, spokesperson, representative and long time friend. As you have just heard, Mr. Tremblay has announced his untimely retirement, which has come far too soon for one of the NHL’s brightest talents. Head injuries are a serious issue in sports which affect hundreds of athletes across all sports, and not only impact their careers, but also their ability to carry out a normal life after their career has come to pass. Given Mr. Tremblay’s tragic retirement, we have begun the creation of a new non-profit organization. An organization entirely dedicated to protecting the heads of players in order to reduce and prevent the occurrence of these tragic injuries. We are here, proud to present the creation of the Heads Up Foundation. An organization dedicated to the players, to support their bright futures both on the field, and in the game of life.

(Show Public Service Announcement)

The concept of our first Public Service announcement as an organization is that the human’s best vision is in hindsight. Once the athlete is lying there, on the ground, disoriented, weak and concussed, the mind begins to think about what it did wrong, what could have been done to prevent or reduce the damage done from the injury sustained. We believe that by showing athletes how they may think in hindsight, will allow them to plan and prevent for injuries that may be sustained on the field. In addition, we placed the athletes on the ground in the shot in order to give the point of view of a player down on the ground as they have been hit, in order to invoke the feeling of vulnerability to the audience. Thus since our targeted audience is athletes we hope that the feeling of vulnerability leads them to wear headgear appropriately with the hope of preventing head injuries. The purpose of this PSA is to demonstrate to athletes what they may regret in hindsight, in order to achieve the goal of the PSA, which is to encourage athletes to wear their headgear right. The recurring opening of each statement made, “I should have” which portrays the feeling of regret in the audience, with the purpose of making athletes feel like they dont want to feel this kind of regret simply because of not wearing the proper headgear appropriately. Hence, the #WEARITRIGHT campaign aims to encourage athletes to do as our hash tag does and wear it right. We believe hash tags are an effective way to create a social movement in this day and age, and we have begun to spread these onto social media sites such as facebook and reddit. Our public service announcement will begin airing on ESPN and FOX Sports tomorrow.

(Show Screenshots of Facebook and Reddit Pages)

Add Analysis here. Have not completed this!

(Show Poster)

This is our campaign poster, which you will begin to see on all major sports magazines and

websites, such as sports illustrated and ESPN. The poster displays contrast photo of a player on the bench watching his teammates. And another photo of the same player, watching his teammates after retirement, in a wheelchair. Hopefully when athletes see this, they will become more aware of the negative implications head injuries can have on their life. The text uses the literary device of anaphora to demonstrate to demonstrate the level of impact head injuries can have on an athlete's life, hence the use of the words all which signifies that it can take everything. The text on the top aims to invoke the feeling of fear in the audience and make them become more aware of how one little mistake on the field can change their lives. The dark color in the background portrays the motif of darkness and how we believe this is a dark issue. In the photograph the player looking at the light shows symbolizes the player looking into the distance at a greater power, however because the player did not take care of his body he ended up in a wheelchair. The quote below the picture is extremely important, (“If it doesn’t hurt today, it will tomorrow) this quote is supposed to mean how even though the head injury may not hurt today it will tomorrow, it really takes a futuristic approach as it values the future more than the present, it shows the athlete how important the future is regardless of how much they value the present. The interconnection between the quote and the text portrays the message that disregarding the present, can have very negative consequences in the future, which hopefully carries out the goal of this organization, which is to improve player safety for a better future.

(Show Brochure)

Although we aim to persuade mostly professional athletes to wear the equipment right, we are also heavily target the root of the issue, and we have created brochures to inform our athletes. The colors in our brochure provide a flamboyant color scheme, so our brochure does not become a needle in a haystack, and it stands out effectively. The first page of our brochure has a simple but direct statement, “Play it Safe”, this continues the theme of prevention that recurs through our campaign. The green color on the letter safe is meant to make the audience feel warmth and safety which are ideas commonly associated with the color green. In addition, we included several sports in our brochure to target a wider audience, to prevent tragic head injuries in more sports, in addition displaying our knowledge on the brochure could increase our ethos and display our credibility as an organization willing to help players. We used a how to method because it is an effective and simple method to forward information to all readers to make it more understandable and not so much of a challenge to read.

Our brochure also includes several facts, statistics and examples of head injuries so that our audience can better understand the issue, and see real life examples. As well, we have a page that describes who we are, and our goals as an organization devoted to the safety of the players. Our brochure combines color, information and how to’s to carry out the purpose of preventing injuries to the heads of athletes by informing them on how to appropriately use their protective headgear.

We thank you all for coming today, to turn this tragic retirement into a positive step in the history of sports. Thank You.